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Windows 7: Access denied for shared drive

I've got a simple home network, with one Windows 7 Ultimate x64 desktop (wired), one Windows XP Pro desktop (wired), and two Windows 7 Home Premium notebooks (wireless). The motherboard failed on one of the notebooks that belongs to my stepdaughter, so I removed the hard drive and installed it in the Windows 7 desktop. My intent is to mark it shared so that the new notebook she is buying can access it and she can copy her data files.

I currently have two other shared folders and a shared USB flash drive on the Windows 7 computer. There is no problem accessing these other shared folders and drive from any of the computers on the network.

However, when I marked the new hard drive as shared and gave full rights to Everyone, exactly the same way I shared the USB flash drive, the other computers on the network can see the shared drive, but they get an "access denied" message indicating they do not have rights to it. I have no problems accessing the drive from the Win 7 computer.

What is it that I need to do to give the other computers access to this drive? As I said, it is shared in exactly the same way as the USB flash drive they have no problems accessing.

I'm thinking you may not have set the correct permissions. On the computer it's connected to, right click on "Computer" and select "Manage". Now, under "System Tools" -> "Shared Folders" -> "Shares" double-click on the name of this share and go to the "Share Permissions" tab. Make sure that this is where you set "Everyone" to full control, otherwise you were just setting the local permissions

If it's not a permissions issue then it could be that your firewall is somehow blocking access, though that seems unlikely since you said other shared drives are working fine. You can also try taking ownership of the entire drive from the computer that can access the drive, then make sure your shared permissions are set properly

It was indeed a problem with ownership, apparently because the drive was from another computer and the files had their original rights intact. Also, I had to add "Everyone" to the security permissions for the network share. And then I had to wait for the new share rights to propagate across the network (or reboot both computers). Whew! Windows networking is not for the faint of heart.

It was indeed a problem with ownership, apparently because the drive was from another computer and the files had their original rights intact. Also, I had to add "Everyone" to the security permissions for the network share. And then I had to wait for the new share rights to propagate across the network (or reboot both computers). Whew! Windows networking is not for the faint of heart.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

You're welcome, glad it's working now

The Microsoft answer to that challenge is "Homegroup" but from my experience that isn't really any better and wouldn't work with your XP machine

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